Running Away
by JustYourAverageWitch
Summary: Molly has received the worst news she could possibly receive. What else is she to do? Written for round one of The Genre Competition.


"Molly! There's an owl for you."

Molly Weasley sighed and laid her now sleeping daughter in her cot. She bustled down the hallway to the kitchen where her husband waited for her, note in one hand, tea in the other.

"How's Ginny?"

"Arthur, the name we gave her is 'Ginevra,'" she absentmindedly reminded him, having gone through this conversation since their little girl had been born three weeks ago.

What her husband said next, she didn't know. Her heart suddenly stopped as she read the short note from Albus:

_Molly,_

_Gideon and Fabian are dead._

_I'm so sorry._

_Albus_

"Molly? Molly!"

"They're dead. They're dead. How can they be dead? How can they be dead?!" Molly gasped.

"Molly, who?" Arthur asked gently.

She shook her head, refusing to believe it. She started shaking and found it hard to breathe. She needed to get out.

And so she ran.

She didn't know where she was. All she knew was that she was alone. Her brothers, her carefree, pranking brothers, were gone. They were _dead_.

She knew the Order was dangerous, right from the start. She had managed to convince Arthur not to join, but her brothers were set on protecting their little sister and her family.

And now they were gone.

It was _all her fault_. They never would have joined if she didn't need protecting.

_Oh, of course they would have. You know Fabian and Gideon, always rushing headfirst into danger_, the rational part of her mind argued.

In her current state, Molly was not listening to reason. Only one word ran through her head, over and over again: _dead_.

She clutched her head and sank to her knees, mumbling, "Not dead. Not dead. They can't be dead!"

Suddenly, her eyes began closing. She barely had time to lean against a tree trunk before she fell asleep.

In her dreams, she saw her brothers, alive and well. They were smiling and laughing, recalling past pranks and ideas for future ones. Suddenly, they looked over their shoulders at her and motioned her over.

With a grin, she and Arthur (where did he come from?) sat in front of Fabian and Gideon.

"Hey, Art, did Molly ever tell you about the day we went off to Hogwarts?" Gideon grinned.

"Oh, no. Not this story," she groaned.

"What happened?" Arthur asked, curious about what could make his wife so red in the face (and not because of anger).

"Well, we had pulled down our trunks to the living room and were just waiting on Molly," Fabian recollected.

"However, she was nowhere to be seen. Now, Fabian here had noticed that his trunk was quite a bit heavier than it should have been," Gideon continued.

"When I opened it up, what did we find? Molly had hidden in my trunk so she could go to Hogwarts with us!" Fabian chortled.

"I was eight years old!"

"That's no excuse!"

As Molly laughed, the room became dimmer. She looked around, the grin sliding off her face when she noticed that Arthur, Gideon, and Fabian were lying face down on the ground.

"Gideon? Fabian? Arthur?" she asked, lightly shaking them. She turned them around, screaming when she was met with lifeless eyes and pale faces.

"It's your fault, Molly. You killed them," a voice whispered, cackling when Molly kept screaming.

Molly jolted awake, tears streaming down her face and a strange choking sound coming from her mouth. She didn't hear the nearby footsteps, or Arthur's relieved voice shouting, "I found her!"

She didn't feel her husband's warm arms wrap her cold body in a hug. All she could feel was sadness. Misery. Grief.

"It's alright, Molly. Everything's going to work out just fine. You'll see. You're not alone. You'll never be alone. You'll always have me and the kids. We'll never leave you."

Molly didn't remember much of the days following her brothers' passing. All she knows is that, one morning, Ginny starting crying. Something snapped within her and pulled her from her funk. She hurried to the nursery and smiled slightly as she saw Arthur hurriedly shushing their little girl, begging her to stop crying.

"I think Ginny needs a mother's touch," she remarked softly.

She still managed to startle her husband, who turned around and stared at her in disbelief. She shook her head and took Ginny from his arms, rocking her back and forth.

"I thought her name was 'Ginevra.'"

"Oh, hush."

**A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed it! If you see any issues, feel free to message me. I'm open to suggestions.**


End file.
